As a woman, there must have been at least one occasion in your life when you wished you could stop your period. Maybe you were preparing for a tough exam and were plagued by cramps. Perhaps you ended the perfect date by sending the perfect guy home because you didn’t want your first time together to be on your period. Or maybe you just really, really don’t like having your period because of the hundreds of symptoms that accompany it.
Whatever your story, you must have wished that you could stop your period at some point. Many women wish it quite often.
Modern medicine works wonders. Today, there is medication for everything from cramps to bloating to reducing your flow. And yes, there’s a way to stop your period too.
Reasons women stop their Period
The first thing your doctor will ask you is why you want to stop your period. You need to be truthful about the reason so that an appropriate solution can be found. Stopping your period, although simple to do, is not the best place for your body to be because there are drugs involved. And you want to avoid drugs as much as possible for better health. So if you need to stop just one period, make sure you tell your doctor that so she can regulate the amount of chemicals that your body will have to deal with. Here are some of the main reasons that women across the world want to stop their period.
The primary reason to stop a period is contraception. Women want to be able to have sex freely without worrying about getting pregnant.
- Travel is another common reason. Somehow, a trip to Hawaii just isn’t the same if you have your period and have to contend with tampon changes, bloating, and mood swings.
- In some cultures, women who have their period are barred from religious ceremonies. So if a woman knows that she has to attend or be a part of some ritual, then she would want to stop her period if it happens to coincide with the date of the religious function.
- Sometimes, you may have an occasion like a wedding or an important get-together planned and it just makes life a lot easier to stop your period around that time.
- Today’s world is full of busy women who are juggling high-stakes careers with demanding families. They just have way too much on their plate all the time. So they may think of stopping their period for years if possible just to give them one less thing to worry about.
Is it safe to stop my Period?
The answer is not a simple yes or no because it’s too soon to tell. The drugs to stop a period have not been on the market long enough to observe long-term repercussions or side-effects.
Basically, you should not be messing with your body’s natural system. Ideally, you should leave it alone to do its job because it knows better than you do. However, it is understandable that you may feel like you have to stop your period to make life a little easier from time to time. But make sure that you know the risks involved.
On a practical front, once the effect of the medication wears off, your period will go back to its normal schedule. But there have been rare cases where this does not happen. So that’s the first risk you will be taking.
Studies have shown that women who stop their periods for a long period of time are at a risk of lower fertility. This makes it either very difficult or downright impossible for them to have a baby. Women who did get pregnant were very likely to miscarry.
If you stop your period, you are also at a greater risk for developing osteoporosis later in life.
Remember that to stop your period, you will be putting a powerful drug into your body. This drug will be playing around with your body’s highly sophisticated systems. There is still a lot that even the best researchers and doctors don’t know about the body and about how the drugs we take affect it. So something you think is harmless today will turn out to be toxic when we finally get to that point in our understanding of the body some years down the line. Tread with caution.
Make sure you stop your period only if you absolutely have to and only for as long as is necessary.
How do I stop my Period?
If you have ever done an online search for how to stop your period, you already know that there are several really idiotic suggestions making the rounds that people actually listen to and try. Most of them involve self-medication that involves high doses of some or the other over-the-counter drug without a consultation with a doctor. This can be extremely harmful to health, and very risky besides. You have no clue what these drugs and crazy ideas are doing to your body and you will not even notice the damage until it is too late.
If you want to stop your period, see your doctor. She will advise you after taking note of your case history. All the methods listed below must be incorporated only if you get the green signal from your GP or gynecologist. The right method for you will depend on your general health and how much time you have before the period you want to stop is due.
The simplest way to stop your period is with the help of the contraceptive pill. You must start taking the pill at least one cycle before the period that you want to stop. When you complete one pack, just start with another one instead of taking the placebo pills. You will not have your period as long as you are continuously on the contraceptive pill. However, make sure you do not do this for a long period of time as the pill is not the safest drug on the market and you could be causing great harm to yourself without even knowing it.
- There are in fact contraceptive pills made specifically to stop your period. They are called extended-cycle pills. You would normally take these continuously for three to six months, and then take placebos for a week during which you would get your period.
- Then there is the hormone progestogen, available in pill form under several brands. You’ll have to take it thrice a day for as long as you want to not have your period. When you stop taking it, you will get your period within 2 to 3 days. However, this is not 100% effective. Women have reported bleeding or spotting while taking progestogen pills.
- There are now contraceptive shots and even contraceptive implants that stop your period altogether for months in a row. A popular example is the Depo-Provera shot which stops your period for three months. Be warned though that these methods of contraception have been known to cause severe hormonal imbalance and depression. There have been several cases of women who retained the side-effects even after they get off it.
Now that you know of all the risks involved, you should really ask yourself whether it is worthwhile to stop your period. It’s your body and your life, and you should go ahead and do it if you have honestly assessed your situation and decided that it is more important than your health in the long run.
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